Various navigation systems for use with moving objects are known. Generally, though not always, the system includes an appropriate mechanism for allowing the current location of the moving object to be ascertained, and to use that information in some manner to provide the user with instructions regarding appropriate subsequent maneuvering. In general, for a navigation system to offer much utility, a mechanism must be provided to allow the user to select a desired destination from amongst a plurality of potential destinations.
One prior art system provides a keyboard that a user operates to enter desired destination information. Such a system is objectionable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that many persons are unfamiliar with keyboards and are not able to manipulate them in an accurate and convenient manner without significant training.
Other prior art systems provide menu based address information selection, requiring the user to select alphanumeric characters one at a time from a palette of available characters. This approach is both time consuming and again, many users are not initially conversant nor proficient with such a data entry mechanism.
Other data selection and/or entry mechanisms are of course known in a more general context. For example, the use of a mouse in conjunction with a display screen offering a plurality of choices that may be selected by the mouse, as exemplified by the Smalltalk browser utility (as offered by Zerox Corporation) has useful applicability in many circumstances. Such an approach is a poor choice in a navigation system, however, both because of physical limitations and because many individuals are not skilled in mouse control or mouse driven selection techniques, again forcing a training requirement upon the inexperienced navigation system user.
For all of these reasons, a need exists for an apparatus and method to allow desired destination information to be input to a navigation system by an inexperienced user without requiring antecedent training. Preferably, only those skills typically associated with operating a vehicle should be anticipated as those skills that will be available in the inexperienced user.